


How Long, How Long Blues

by lullabelle



Category: Supernatural, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 17:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lullabelle/pseuds/lullabelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are a few things worth any price. Jack could name a few.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Long, How Long Blues

It was just a superstition, a bad idea born of whiskey and grief, but he was tired and alone here in the Middle of Nowhere, USA, and he’d already exhausted himself of less crazy options; now the long shots were all that were left to him. His hands trembled in the unexpected cold, rattling the tin he was clutching as he knelt down in the crossroads. He placed the tin on the ground beside him and used his hands to scratch a shallow hole in the packed dirt, granules grinding underneath his fingernails. It was uncomfortable, but he didn’t care. He put the tin in the depression he’d made and palmed the displaced soil back over it.

He stood and wiped his palms off on his coat, observing his handiwork. He was unsure of how long he’d have to wait before he knew if it had worked. Behind him, leaves rustled in the midnight breeze. A dog howled mournfully in the distance, but his wish remained ungranted. He wasn’t particularly surprised that it hadn’t worked, but often stories like these were stemmed from some kind of truth, and he’d had to try. “Just another local legend,” he said out loud, ready to take his leave.

“The same could be said about you,” a low, feminine voice purred from behind him, “Captain Jack Harkness.”

Jack turned on his heel. The woman standing there was a young, curvy brunette wearing a sleeveless dress and a cocky smirk. She was apparently not bothered by the cold. In the moonlight her eyes glinted red.

“A bit far from home, aren’t we?” She paused for him to reply, but he didn’t take the bait. “What’s the matter,” she asked, “cat got your tongue? You’ve come an awful long way just to clam up now,” She began to walk around him and the place where the box was buried, slowly, circling like a shark. “Isn’t there something you want to ask me?”

Jack fixed her with a stare that would have had lesser creatures shrinking away. The demon continued to circle, expression unchanging.

“I’ve been to the other side,” Jack said. “There’s nothing.”

She laughed. “Oh, please don’t tell me you brought me all the way out here to discuss theology. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s not, but for the right place I can bring someone back from it. Pluck them right out of the dark and pop them into, say...” she cocked her head as if she was listening, “a three-piece suit?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at her.

“You’ve been poking around my turf for a few days now, Captain. I’ve done my research. I know how good your lover looks in a businesswear... and how good he looks out of it.” She winked, coming to a stop uncomfortably close to him. He watched as her flirtatious smile melted into something much crueler. “I also know the noises he makes when you hang him from meat hooks and bat him around like a tether ball.”

Jack tackled her with a snarl, pinning her to the ground with a forearm to her windpipe. A normal human would have been winded, but the demon grinned and cackled. Her breath smelled like sulfur. Jack knew that, satisfying as it might be, he had nothing to gain by restraining her, so he pulled away, disgusted.

“This one got to you. How many people have touched you the way he did? How many people did you have to say goodbye to? As one ancient thing to another, I know what it’s like to watch the generations pass while you remain unchanged.” The demon rose to her feet, brushing the dust off her dress and fixing him with a look that fell somewhat short of sympathy, if that was indeed what she was going for. “I can _give him back_.”

“I’d still have to say goodbye eventually,” Jack hedged.

“You would,” the demon admitted. “But I would give you ten years first. _He_ would get ten years with you, and then he could go on to live a long, full life after you’re gone -- a life with someone who deserves him.”

Jack flinched at that. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that ten years could, and would, pass in the blink of an eye, but he just couldn’t let Ianto go. Not now, not yet. He knew what it was he was agreeing to. His mind had been made up since he’d came here, to Alabama, to the crossroads, on this fool’s errand.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

“A kiss seals the deal,” she told him, gesturing to her mouth with one manicured finger.

He took her by the shoulders and leaned down, capturing her mouth with his, kissing her properly and trying not to imagine that she was taller, that his hands were resting on a pinstriped suitcoat instead of bare skin. He didn’t want to gloss over the truth of what he was doing with memories or fantasies. He knew that this was worth the price. Another decade with Ianto would be better than anything eternity could possibly offer him.


End file.
